Transformers Stores

Monday, April 24, 2006

"Their War. Our World." - Ton of TF info

Ain't It Cool News.com just posted a description of a sit down meet with Transformer director Michael Bay. All the below is early ideas and designs and therefore subject to change, but it does give some insight on where the movie might be going.

"... he is going to audition the original voice actors for the Autobots and Decepticons. He said it's no guarantee they'll get cast, but he's going to give them a listen. His main fear is that the actors have aged since the cartoon and that age may be noticeable in their voices." - if 40 years had passed, legit concern but 20, naw no worries.

"The tagline was 'Their War. Our World.'" - Not bad really

"...full support of the US Armed Forces"- always good for things go boom movies

"...if the world ever had a giant robot problem how we see the Armed Forces deal with them in TRANSFORMERS is how we'd see them deal with them in real life." - Sounds like lots of booming will happen.

"first film to be able to use the new fighter jet, the F-22." - Starscream?

"He showed me another robot, a Decepticon called Scorponok" - Not a name that has come up before in rumors. Interesting choice since he was third or fourth wave toy, one of its mode was a 'city', well TF version of a city anyway.

"...first look at Optimus Prime...was seeing was him without his battle mask. ...still a Mac truck."- Hey confirmation that Optimus is in it and honoring at least some of what makes him Optimus in form. Sounds like the mask will be used as it was in later incarnations. When he talks no mask and when fighting, has the mask. For those not sure what talking about if look at the toy, Optimus has a plate that covers where a mouth would be.

"Shia's character ends up with a banana yellow '70s looking car with lots of wear... and of course, that car is a Transformer."- Bumblebee? But what yellow car. Hasbro couldn't make a Alternator toy for Bumblebee as a New Beetle because the company didn't want to associate with war toys. Of course, those kind of attitudes can change when the car could be front and center of a major hollywood movie. I wouldn't mind the yellow car being a beetle but at the same time I don't want VW to get rewarded for silly attitudes. We shall see I guess.

"It starts in the Antarctica with a man chipping away at a giant ice wall."- Finds a robot hand, reminds me of the beginning of Dreamwaves Transformers mini-series. Not a knock because it makes logical sense. In a world mostly explored by humans, Antarctica is about the last place could hide giant dormant living robots and not have to spend precious time explaining it to the audience or setting up the discovering. With using the frozen poles, the setup is automatic and needs no explanation.

"We will actually see Cybertron"- Ooh sweet. I hope they assign the CGI to a gooey TF fan who can add lots of goodies and textures to it. For them it would be a labor of love.

"From the animatics, the action seemed to be huge and what you'd want from a movie like this. Of course, Bay's fingerprints are all over them, even at this early stage of planning. I saw fights between fully transformed Autobots and Decepticons that had them plucking lamp posts out of the ground and smashing the other with the blocky concrete end, I saw them jumping all over each other, only to be shot back by an arm cannon, I saw mid-air transformations from a Jet into a robot as it collides a standing robot in downtown LA... "- Sweet. If the studio has any sense, some of this stuff will get "leaked" to the internet to spend the next year being discussed and disected on sites such as youtube.com. More people talking, the better. When people talk, they get curious, when they get curious, the will buy tickets.

"The sequence has Optimus and a Decepticon speeding along a crowded freeway, the Decepticon's truck flipping over any vehicle in its way. Optimus is catching up to him and transforms as he gets close, keeping the tires on the ground and avoiding as many cars as he can. The transformation was everything Transformers geeks would want to see big. It was smooth and ended with Optimus crouching, the wheels still on the ground."- Hopefully Optimus kicks butt in ways not seen since the animated movie.

The teaser trailer is being released 6/4/06. Shooting starts in May.Full details here.

1 comment:

20 years was more than enough time for Chris Latta to pass away, though Peter Cullen is still doing Eeyore well enough and Frank Welker can still get hired to do the voices of every non-speaking animal in every cartoon.